A farewell to summer!

September 1, 2015 By

Sure, the kids went back to school a couple of weeks ago but my summer officially ended on Sunday. Between all our travels, kids at home, my girl’s trip to Aspen and then entertaining my brother and his wife last week, I’m hoping I’ll finally get caught up on life soon.

If we had a theme to our summer, it was Get Outdoors. I can’t remember ever spending so much time hiking, boating and playing with friends and family–it truly was our best summer ever! But now it’s time to batten down the hatches. I’m one who sucks the marrow out of life and love to work and play harder but as Jamie reminded me during our walk this week, I’ve been playing waaaaaay more than working. Though I have kept Mile High Mamas going strong, this here blog has suffered from lack of attention.

The last few weeks, I’ve actually been looking for additional work and was interviewed for a digital manager/content position for an inspiring non-profit and I was excited…until I learned it was 40 hours/week with no flexibility to work from home. Add that to a 45-minute commute (one way) and I politely (though sadly) turned it down because our home would fall apart if I was gone 50 hours a week on a non-profit salary.

So, if anyone hears of a great part-time position in social media/writing/blogging/events management/kick-butt marketing, let me know! We have some big expenses coming up like needing a new car and braces for Hadley. And she needs a new bike. Her tutor isn’t cheap, nor is Bode’s dental bill. Now that I mention it, our 11-year-old carpet desperately needs to be replaced and don’t ask me the last time I went to the dentist. Our list–like so many others–is long.

Then I received a query last weekend from someone wanting to do a homeswap with us for a few weeks next summer in Southern England and I was ready to ignore all our expenses and go. Hadley was all-in but then there were Bode and Jamie: our voices of reason. “Mom, we need a new car. Be realistic,”40-year-old Bode reminded me. So, we’re two against two with Fat Kitty as the deciding factor. You know: the feline that freaks out every time we leave him for more than five hours.

We’re doomed. At least we’ll (hopefully) have a new car as consolation.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Only at our house

August 24, 2015 By

As I was preparing dinner, Jamie warned me:  ”I need to leave soon. My buddy Joe needs some help weighing his tomato.”

No amount of forewarning can ever prepare you for that.

====

Addendum. I posted his comment to Facebook and this was his response:

Allegedly a new state record tomato, thank you. This could be history in the making! A historic event. As a result a new strain of tomatoes could be developed that could feed nations!!! Tens of thousands of starving children in Africa saved from the small and simple sacrifice of time for weighing this tomato!!!! The humanity, the humanity. I don’t wish to be praised for my unselfish act however. Just knowing that some small child will be able to sleep tonight with a full belly is satisfaction enough. Thank you and God bless America!

Please pray he doesn’t add tomato to his giant vegetable/fruit growing obsession! :-)

What a Colorado State Record tomato looks like

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

The final countdown

August 19, 2015 By

The kids are finally back in school, which means I’ll be able to spend some much-needed time getting caught up on this blog about all our summer travels, right? Probably not. I’m celebrating my friends’ birthday tomorrow with lunch and a hike, I leave Friday morning with some other friends to do Mudderella in Aspen and then next week, my brother Pat and his wife Jane are FINALLY coming to visit us in Denver. The only other time they’ve been here was for our wedding so it’s long overdue.

Better luck next month on updates.

The kids and I have spent our last few days cramming in all the ugly things we should have spread out all summer like assessment testing, organizing their rooms, the dentist and a failed attempt at Water World.

Le Dentist

I’m exceedingly thrilled that Bode has 3–maybe 4–cavities and that Hadley needs braces. When two self-employed people pay almost as much for health insurance as they do their mortgage, that leaves no room for dental insurance. Can you say: payment plan.

Hadley’s crooked teeth are a mess so we knew they’d need an overhaul. But sweet, responsible Bode was devastated over his prognosis and has since been hypervigilant about flossing (too little, too late). But I sure appreciate all his prayers that we’ll have enough money to pay for his rotting mouth. Not that I can talk; we just barely finished paying off my last visit to the dentist 18 months ago. 

Water World Fail

How exactly can one fail at Water World, one of the country’s premier waterparks with 50+ attractions? Allow me to divulge:

1) You wait for your husband to get off work so don’t leave until 1 p.m.

2) You get stuck in I-76 traffic for about a half an hour and don’t arrive until after 2 p.m.

3) When you finally arrive, you wait in line for a long time for two rides. For kicks and giggles, you cut your leg on one of them.

4) You wait in line for an hour for Mile High Flyer. When you’re about 15 minutes from the front of the line, the park closes for 60 minutes due to lightning/rain.

5) You cut your losses (it’s already 4 p.m.) and you go home after only riding two rides.

6) Better luck next year.

So Long, Farewell

Jamie’s sister sold her house quit her job and has been living with us this summer. I wasn’t sure how it would work out (we’re a lot to handle) but she was a delight to hang out with, she helped clean, took the kids out and even babysat for us one night so we could go on a dinner and movie night to Mission Impossible.

It was like we were almost human again!

Lisa is soon embarking on a month-long trip to Europe so for her self-off/birthday celebration, we had two fondues: One with rib-eye steak and the other was this Gouda Cheese Fondue with Herbed Crostini beef. Jamie smoked the Gouda in his smoker and the result was Out. Of. This. World. 

She’ll be sorely missed by everyone but Fat Kitty is taking it particularly hard. During all our summer travels, he’s been glued to her side, snuggled up in her soft blanket. She was his one constant and now she’s gone, gone, gone. His only solace is to rip off the heads of mice and leave their innards all over our yard.

We all have our coping mechanisms.

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Hadley, Humor

Servitude in the pumpkin patch

August 10, 2015 By

I haven’t posted many updates on our giant pumpkin growing season because there’s not much to tell. We definitely won’t have any record-breaking 1,000+ pound pumpkins.

What a week of no water looks like

The season started great and the plants had never looked better prior to pollination despite a month of non-stop rain.  Then due to a plethora of reasons like cracked vines, dogs eating the pumpkins and other fun things, pollination on the plants was late, which means we’re really far behind on growth.

The first pollination (early July) was cranking along nicely and then one day, dropped off dramatically when Jamie figured out the sprinklers hadn’t been working for an entire week! The second pollination was super late (only two weeks ago) and the pumpkin is only the size of a volleyball right now–usually our plants should be gaining 35-40 pounds per day.

Oh, the heartbreak that is Giant Pumpkin Growing.

The kids’ plants aren’t faring much better. Bode’s pumpkin was pollinated a week before Hadley’s but her pumpkin is rapidly catching up due to good genetics and the fact she actually weeds her patch. Though Bode is diligent in watering, he was on vacation for the entire month of July so his patch is a jungle–there are literally weeds as tall as he is. I helped him weed this morning and it was nearly impossible because many of the weeds are actually wrapped around the pumpkin vines so I was nervous to pull anything that might be detrimental to the pumpkin’s growth.

Weeding was a tedious, thankless task. It’s a good thing Bode is smart because he was not made for manual labor.

“Mom, I want to have a butler like Aunt Lisa.

“Aunt Lisa has a butler?”

“No, I want Aunt Lisa to be my butler.”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor, pumpkins

While the cat’s away

July 10, 2015 By

My friend Stacey commented that I haven’t written much about giant pumpkins this year. There hasn’t been much to share. Jamie’s season started splendidly and then growth slowed significantly with all of Denver’s rain. When the deluge finally subsided, his pumpkins rebounded beautifully…until he moved the main vine a couple of weeks ago and it split. In Pumpkin Geek Speak, this mean he’ll have to designate another main vine and it will delay pollination a couple of weeks, which means two less weeks of growth before the weigh-off.

That was a sad, sad day.

I called him last week from Canada and couldn’t get a hold of him for 24 hours. It made me wonder if absence really does make the heart grow fonder but ultimately decided it’s more like “when the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

When I finally got a hold of him, I asked where he’d been at 10 p.m.

“I was at a pumpkin pollination party.”

Some questions are better left unanswered.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Summer Fun in Colorado

June 29, 2015 By

For the next several weeks, posting will be sporadic as the kids and I embark upon our month-long adventure to Canada and back again.  Summer is flying by waaaaaay too quickly and when we return we’ll already be planning back-to-school.

A few highlights: Taking Hadley to KURIOS - Cabinet of Curiosities. It was a crazy, stormy night and we were warmly tucked away inside. This was my fourth Cirque du Soleil performance but my favorite part was watching Hadley’s reaction. She’s such a creative, imaginative kid who’s constantly shot down in a linear world. It was magic to see this dreamscape unfold where creativity is rewarded and heralded.

Now that it’s summer, I’m not super strict with bedtime and she’d stay up all night creating and drawing if I’d let her.

Adventures near Clear Creek following Avid4 Adventure day camp. Sadly, they weren’t in Clear Creek…the water levels as just too high!

And yep, Avid4 Adventure was a blast!

Summer hiking group at Evergreen Lake

and another at Maxwell Falls.

We had an amazing trip to pickup Hadley from Camp Chief Ouray. More details next week but we had a blast ziplining, canoeing, summer tubing and more at our beloved YMCA of the Rockies! First, at Snow Mountain Ranch.

Zipline

Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the U.S.

Then, at the Estes Park Center.

Gaga Ball

Bode: ruining iconic photos

We had a blast previewing the Children’s Museum of Denver’s new 30,000-square foot outdoors playscape Joy Park. Bode and his buddy Porter were the very first kids to ride the mini zipline!


The favorite features were that zipline, building a dam in the stream and digging a volcano in the sand dunes and filling it with water. My kids were the dirtiest and messiest out of anyone. I’ve decided to view it was a talent, not a curse.


Until laundry time.

White Fence Farm opened up Granny’s, a new candy shop, that we just had to check out as well.

Here’s for hoping the hoping the rest of our summer is just as sweet.

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Family travel, Hadley, hiking, Humor

When lightning strikes

June 25, 2015 By

Denver has had some craaaaaazy weather this spring/summer. Though the deluge has subsided, it’s not uncommon to have daily thunderstorms. Temperatures have been tolerable in the 80s and low-90s, which makes me really happy. Just keep me out of the upper 90s and triple-digits.

I’ve experienced a handful of scary lightning storms but none scarier than backpacking the West Rim Trail in Zion 15 years ago. It’s a miracle we made it though the night, though being greeted by a winter wonderland was one of my favorite moments ever.

Last month, Denver had a crazy lightning storm that electrified the horizon for more than an hour. I’d like to say we cowered under my duvet and belted out “My Favorite Things” as we watched each enormous Zeus-like bolt power through the atmosphere back to earth, leaving backlit impressions into our retinas.

Jamie in deep reflection in between bolts

But if we’re being honest here, this is what it looked like every time the light illuminated the room.

Some things (and kids) are better left in the dark.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

It’s Bode’s first ever guest blog post

June 22, 2015 By

And that boy doesn’t disappoint as he tells it straight about his Avid4Adventures:

From stinky, dead bloated fish.

To the girl who wiped out mountain biking and her “skin folded off.”

To his hiking bathroom breaks.

To freaking me out when he rocked the boat.

To kicking his sister’s butt rappelling.

Read all about it here.

Filed Under: biking, Bode, hiking, Humor, outdoors

Adults: Lamer than we look

June 17, 2015 By

As we were walking into Stake Conference, Hadley observed a man in the parking lot guiding traffic and then another holding the door open to welcome us.

“Mom, is it boring being an adult?”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

[I go on to list all the fun adventures I continue to have while she tunes me out.]

“Mom, I think I know what I want to be when I grow up.”

“That’s awesome! What is it?”

“I’ll want to be a kid again.”

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, LDS

Risky Bode Business

June 12, 2015 By

What to do when you’re an 8-year-old boy getting dressed and your mom walks into your room without knocking to put away the laundry: stand in your underwear and flex. Or maybe he was doing that anyway.

P.S. I made him put on shorts for the picture. For obvious reasons.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor
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